Thursday 20 October 2016

Media Quotes of the Week: From Donald Trump presidency a threat to press freedom to how Mirror bosses mocked launch of the Sun with dead flowers



The Committee to Protect Journalists in a statement:  
"Through his words and actions, Trump has consistently demonstrated a contempt for the role of the press beyond offering publicity to him and advancing his interests. For this reason CPJ is taking the unprecedented step of speaking out now. This is not about picking sides in an election. This is recognizing that a Trump presidency represents a threat to press freedom unknown in modern history."

Donald Trump at a rally in Florida on the media, as reported by RawStory: “They will attack you, they will slander you, they will seek to destroy your career and your family.”

The New York Times in response to a legal threat from Trump's lawyers: “Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr Trump through his own words and actions has already created for himself.”

Michael Wolff in the Holywood Reporter: "Trump, not surprisingly, now that he has been simply categorized as a sex abuser, makes matters worse for himself. By attacking the media — with toothless threats of lawsuits — he fortifies its unity and its certainty. But you can see why he's hurt and confused. For so long the media encouraged him to be Donald Trump. Thirty years of enabling him and encouraging him. And through more than 18 months of campaigning for president, it really seemed like he was going to get away with being who he was. But lest nobody forget: The media, if it makes you — in this instance with great civic resolve — can break you, too."


Jack Shafer on politico: "What if almost the entire newspaper industry got it wrong? What if, in the mad dash two decades ago to repurpose and extend editorial content onto the Web, editors and publishers made a colossal business blunder that wasted hundreds of millions of dollars? What if the industry should have stuck with its strengths—the print editions where the vast majority of their readers still reside and where the overwhelming majority of advertising and subscription revenue come from—instead of chasing the online chimera?"


Independent publisher Evgeny Lebedev, quoted by the Financial Times on the paper going digital only. “It is still early days, but the first six months have shown that by being more nimble and digitally focused we can better serve our new, much bigger audience online. We are profitable for the first time in 23 years, which brings with it new opportunities.”


The Independent Press Standards Organisation rejecting the complaint by Channel 4 News' presenter Fatima Manji about a Sun column by Kelvin MacKenzie headlined 'Why did Channel 4 have a presenter in a hijab fronting coverage of Muslim terror in Nice': "While the columnist’s opinions were undoubtedly offensive to the complainant, and to others, these were views he had been entitled to express. The article did not include a prejudicial or pejorative reference to the complainant on the grounds of her religion."


Russia Today's editor-in-chief Margarita Simony: “They closed our accounts in Britain. All of them. ‘Decision not to be discussed’. Long live freedom of speech!”

Oliver Kamm in The Times [£]: "The regime of Vladimir Putin murders journalists, represses homosexuals, imprisons critics, assassinates dissidents, flattens cities, attacks aid convoys, shoots down civilian aircraft, foments xenophobia and alters national boundaries by force. Yesterday its state-run propaganda outlet complained of an assault on its liberty because a British bank asked it to take its custom elsewhere."


An NUJ chapel spokesman for Newsquest journalists in South London who have voted to extend their strike over redundancies: "Our strike continues and our resolve is undiminished. All we want is to report the news and celebrate our communities. We totally reject Newsquest's plan for reduced coverage and generic content that will rob local communities with the news and features relevant to where they live. By reducing the quality of the newspapers and websites, how can we build up circulation and be a viable prospect for advertisers?"

Part of an Early Day Motion on the Newsquest South London dispute in which MPs call for: "Newsquest's CEO Henry Faure Walker, Editorial Development Director Toby Granville and local Managing Director Tony Portelli to enter into urgent talks and meaningful consultation with staff representatives from the National Union of Journalists to protect the future of these South London titles, and for a focused public inquiry to urgently be held into the future of local and regional news provision more generally."


The Sun claims a secret tape recording shows that journalist Paul Mason, who campaigned for Jeremy Corbyn, wants him replaced as Labour leader: "His true feelings come despite the TV journalist-turned-author publicly championing Mr Corbyn at major rallies through out Labour’s leadership contest, including one outside Parliament. The left wing former Newsnight and Channel 4 News economics correspondent also revealed he wants to replace Mr Corbyn with shadow business secretary Clive Lewis. The conversation – at the troubled party’s conference in Liverpool two weeks ago – was recorded by a bystander and passed to The Sun."

Paul Mason @paulmasonnews responds on Twitter: "When people on Merseyside realise scabs from the Sun are creeping around their pubs and cafes, taping conversations between journalists and their sources, I hope they will redouble their boycott off this scab newspaper."

Matthew Parris in The Times [£] on the criticism of remainers in the EU campaign: "Blaming The Guardian, blaming The Times, blaming fat British businessmen, blaming golf, Marmite, Japanese car bosses and the governor of the Bank of England, lashing out at the “doom-mongers” and 'naysayers', the 'international bankers' who would 'talk our country down', as though the strong fundamentals of 'the world’s fifth-largest economy' that you promised would power us easily through are now candles in the wind, snuffable by a handful of weedy newspaper columnists . . . blaming everyone and everything but your own lack of an agreed plan, is futile."



Racing journalist Claude Duval 'The Punters Pal' signs off at the Sun: "THIS is it, folks! I am retiring today after 47 years with The Sun. I am the only remaining staff member of the red-top tabloid from the first day it hit the streets — November 17, 1969, later becoming the country’s best-selling newspaper. Yet on the day when The Sun was launched by Rupert Murdoch, Daily Mirror grandees threw a dinner party in their High Holborn boardroom with dead sunflowers running the length of the table. But within years we blossomed, galloped past the Mirror and have been leading the field ever since."

[£]=paywall

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